As the public monitors the spread of COVID-19 locally and beyond, the craving intensifies for accurate, up-to-the-minute statistics about the numbers of cases, how many tests have been administered and the results of those tests.

Agencies are struggling to provide those numbers, as sources of that information are not completely centralized. Private providers may be performing tests, not all tests are evaluated in a central location, and the processes for reporting those results are not always clear.

Public Health Director Karolyn Holden said Tuesday she is working with Grays Harbor Community Hospital and Summit Pacific Medical Center to “completely understand what each hospital is doing” in regard to testing, in order to provide the public with the information.

Holden was able to answer some questions about testing that were put to her by The Daily World.

Are private physicians able to get tests?

“Testing supplies are very limited. The materials used are the same that are used for some other types of testing, so some private health care providers may already have had them on hand. There are commercial laboratories that will do the test on any specimen that a health care provider submits.”

Are hospital tests all sent to the state lab or can they go elsewhere?

“There are number of laboratories doing testing now. A few, including the state public health lab, only accept tests on people in established priority populations. Hospitals can use those labs for people in those populations. We are hearing that results from other labs may take longer to come back.”

How many tests countywide have been administered?

“This is part of the picture we’re working to accurately paint (Tuesday). The Washington State Department of Health is also working on establishing a method of reporting testing data statewide.”

Are all physicians required to follow the county health officer’s order to test only those first responders and medical workers listed late last week?

“The health officer’s order isn’t just limited to health care and first response. The order currently in place is on our website. It may change as the supply of testing equipment changes. The order pertains to testing ordered by all providers practicing in Grays Harbor County.”

Those eligible for testing include:

• People who work in settings where health care services are delivered: hospitals, outpatient clinics, long-term care, and similar.

• People who work in public safety occupations: law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, public health, corrections.

• People who work in critical infrastructure occupations: pharmacists, group homes, utilities, grocery stores, gas stations.

• People who work or live in congregate settings or institutional settings, i.e. long-term care facilities, assisted living facilities, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters.

• People who are deceased and who received aerosol-generating procedures in the field, even in the presence of proper personal protective equipment.

• Patients involved in an illness cluster at the request of Grays Harbor Public Health.

• Patients hospitalized with severe lower respiratory illness who have tested negative for influenza A and B.

In a blog post Tuesday, the state Department of Health said it was doing its best to post daily data.

“We are working to ensure daily numbers are posted on time, but have had many recent challenges with our tracking system.

“We’re having some technical difficulties with the Washington Disease Reporting System (WDRS). WDRS is the database labs and health care providers use to report notifiable conditions, like COVID-19, to us. Usually, we only ask for positive test results, but, for COVID-19, we are also tracking negative test results. The good news is that there are many more negative results than positive. The bad news is that this volume is overwhelming the system. We are working with the vendor supporting WDRS to increase capacity and looking into other ideas that might help. We’ll keep you updated if these technical issues persist.”

This week, the agency made several new data points available. Its COVID-19 website — https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus — is updated frequently and now includes visualizations showing confirmed cases, the epidemiological curve, cumulative case and death counts, testing numbers, and demographic information. Also coming soon is hospitalization data. The agency is also working to optimize the user experience for this data, including for those without a high-speed connection or those working from a mobile device.